Budget surplus 'could make Ireland a broadband nation'

bealtine

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single7569

For those still on dialup:
04.01.2007 - Just a fraction of the €6bn-plus Budget surplus would go a long way towards making Ireland a broadband nation and an international contender in the global knowledge economy instead of the piecemeal initiatives currently on the table, a lobby group said yesterday.
IrelandOffline spokesman Damien Mulley said that if Ireland is serious about attracting high-quality investments then it needs to get its infrastructure, particularly its communications infrastructure, in order.

Yesterday’s end-of-year statement for 2006 by IDA Ireland, while acknowledging significant gains on the jobs front, indicated that competition for foreign direct investment (FDI) internationally is heating up and that many countries are now breathing down Ireland’s neck.

IDA Ireland chief executive Sean Dorgan said that the successes of any one year are always the product of sustained effort over an extended period by many players from government to industry.

He warned that without essential investment in infrastructure in the regions quickly “Dublin may falter and regions fail”.

However, it is on the broadband infrastructure element – essential to the knowledge economy and a vital part of the IDA’s sales pitch ¬– that Ireland is trailing its nearest competitors, ranking 24th out of 32 countries for broadband according to the OECD.

Only 85pc of the country is covered by broadband and a recent Commission for Communications Regulation report showed that over 50pc of people who apply for broadband don’t get it.

The remaining 15pc has been the subject of much conjecture and earlier last year Eircom said that it would take €60m to have 100pc broadband coverage in Ireland.

However, according to the recent Book of Estimates, out of €561m provided to the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, a mere €10m was earmarked to reach 100pc coverage in Ireland.

“If Ireland is serious about attracting high-quality jobs and investment then the Government needs to make sure the basics such as education and infrastructure are available,” Mulley told siliconrepublic.com.

“Broadband is now as essential as electricity for a workforce yet Government initiatives are failing to ensure broadband is available to all the Irish population and not just the major cities.

“A tiny fraction of the 2006 Budget surplus could make Ireland a broadband nation but instead there have been minor piecemeal initiatives to deliver broadband to some areas,” Mulley said.

“The knowledge economy jobs that Ireland is trying to encourage are already being won away by developing countries such as India with an extremely well-educated workforce and who are now beginning to avail of affordable broadband.

“Software developers in Ireland are literally competing with 15-year old Indian kids for work and a large amount of internet entrepreneurs in India are of school-leaving age,” Mulley claimed.

By John Kennedy

Solair

It's very true, however, you'll have a lot of worthy causes looking for that funding too.
So far, I haven't really heard much about broadband from any of the political parties so, I suspect it's still largely off the agenda.
Seems most of the focus is still on transport, health and crime.

I would urge any posters to this forum who are interested in getting better access to broadband to start quizzing any politican who they happen to meet about what they're proposing to do about the situation.

Be blunt, and tell them that you won't be voting for them unless they have a strong policy on it.

Or, better still, start phoning / writing to local TDs and candidates and making the point. All it takes is a few candidates to start placing it on the agenda for the momentum to build.

It's not a pointless exercise either, political types take direct communication from constituents very seriously.

There was a very similar situation back in the late 70s/early 80s with the telephone service. Ireland's network had been left to fester by P&T and nothing happened until people (particularly business people and the IDA) started to really put the pressure on. It did have huge impact as it pushed us from a situation where we had almost the worst telecoms network in the world, to having one of the best and most digitalised. However, there's been a lot of resting on lorels since those days.

Personally, I think one of the biggest problems is that it's not hurting big business thus the really heavy weight players aren't putting pressure on the government to do something. Larger companies can access very good broadband / networking facilities as they've the resources and accounts big enough to bypass the local loop and all of the problems associated with it. It's small to medium size enterprises and home offices that are being hurt badly. It's also causing lack of demand for Irish e-business as there simply aren't enough people regularly online to make it work.